Against the backdrop of the terrible events of the apocalypse, when "people will faint from fear," amid wars and darkness, Christ's words sound paradoxical and astonishing: "...Then straighten up and raise your heads, because your deliverance is drawing near." This is precisely the dimension that has always been lost in all kinds of final predictions about the end of the world. People expected nothing good from it, and in any case they did not expect from it a meeting with Christ. Yet this is a relevant question, and not by accident these words are addressed to everyone: "this generation will not pass away until all is fulfilled." However the history of the earth as a whole unfolds, each of us has ahead of us our own personal end of the world, when history will continue its course without us. And here the most important thing is to remember that meeting God is joy and deliverance, including deliverance from fear.

The Book of Revelation ends with a description of the new, transformed world, whose spiritual center becomes the heavenly Jerusalem. Evidently, the transformation of nature and the appearing of the heavenly Jerusalem turn out to be two sides of one and the same spiritual process, by which the first stage of the history of the Kingdom is completed, a Kingdom that fully includes the world transformed by the breath of God. Apparently, this is precisely the first stage, after which another, new one will follow, the content and meaning of which still remain a mystery for us. It is clear only that with the coming of the Kingdom, life by no means stops developing; it only takes on certain new forms that are still little understood by us. One thing is clear: the "new heaven" and "new earth" mentioned by John imply the complete renewal of creation, a qualitative change in the very nature of our world. The apostle's mention of the sea, which "is no more" (v. 1), testifies to the same thing.

In biblical books the sea usually symbolizes chaos, as well as the forces behind it and that generated it, forces opposing God and striving to destroy the world God created. It is no surprise that in the new, transformed world there is no longer any place for these forces. And Jerusalem turns out to be the center of the new world, which is no surprise: after all, it is precisely with Jerusalem and the Temple that the Presence is connected, the Presence that made the Hebrew people the people of God. It is not by chance that in John's visions the Throne often takes on the features and forms of the Temple or the Tabernacle. Now, after the transformation, the Throne becomes the spiritual center of transformed creation, its meaning and focal point. The "new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (v. 2) becomes the symbol of this focal point.

In the new world, at last, what had been partly revealed in the visions of the great prophets of Israel has been fulfilled: the abyss that previously separated God from His people has disappeared, an abyss connected not so much with the incomparability of God and man, which is surmountable for God, as with human sinfulness, which only the person himself can overcome through repentance and conversion. And now, when human sin and the evil of the world have disappeared, nothing any longer hinders that fullness of communion with God which the righteous and God's witnesses so desired (vv. 3-4).

This communion with God, evidently, now includes not only the human being but all creation, which has become far more receptive to spiritual influences. Before, the world, permeated by evil, barely reacted to them; now it has evidently become more responsive to God's will, and at the same time more dependent on His influence. "I make all things new" (v. 5) applies, perhaps, not only to the fact of creation's renewal and transformation, but also to its very existence: now even more than before, it is determined by that breath of God with which the Kingdom is permeated. The world exists by being constantly renewed under the influence of its Creator, and if before this was hidden, now the spiritual freshness and newness of creation, revealed to everyone, testify to God no less brightly than the righteousness of the faithful testified to Him before. Thus in the new, transformed world, human testimony merges with the testimony of nature renewed by the action of God's breath.

Now, looking from the Throne, John sees not only earthly history, but also the history of the Church somewhat differently. It is revealed to him as a process of universal resurrection consisting of two stages. The first stage, called the "first resurrection," stretches over a certain (obviously symbolic) period of a thousand years, which, evidently, precedes the final defeat of Satan and his supporters (vv. 1-5). Apparently, this stage begins after the Savior's death on the cross, when the first righteous people were raised (Matt 27:51-53). At first glance it may seem difficult to speak of the "binding of Satan" (vv. 1-3) in relation to the age we are living through; meanwhile, if we recognize that the "first resurrection" began on the day of the Savior's death, that conclusion will be the only possible one. And yet, upon closer examination, we will have to agree with such a vision of the situation.

Indeed, none of the Christians of the early Christian era doubted that the Savior's resurrection itself became Satan's defeat, and a strategic defeat at that, after which his war against God and the forces of light can be considered lost, although the final battle still lies ahead. And the very unfolding of the Kingdom in a world permeated by evil and sin would have been impossible if the devil's freedom of action in it had not been limited, if he had not, in the apostle's words, been "bound." If the situation were otherwise, none of us, quite possibly, would have any choice between the Kingdom and life according to the laws of the untransformed world: the forces of darkness, if only they had been allowed, would gladly have deprived us of every choice, cutting fallen humanity off from any spiritual influence from the forces of light. In short, if Satan had not been "bound," our world would long ago have turned into hell, which differs from it above all in this: unlike our transforming but not yet fully transformed world, the breath of the Kingdom does not reach hell at all.

But the forces of darkness, of course, throughout the entire history of the "millennial kingdom," do not stop trying to turn our world into hell, striving to minimize the manifestations of the Kingdom in it as much as they are able. Paul, who spoke of the "mystery of lawlessness," understood perfectly what is happening in the world after the coming of Christ (2 Thess 2:7), just as John did, who sees the witnesses killed for their testimony by none other than the "beast," who, it would seem, should appear on earth only at the end of time. In reality, however, he is evidently opposing God throughout the whole time of the "millennial kingdom." It is no surprise that the apostle calls "blessed" all who have a share in the "first resurrection" (v. 6): for they have already gained that fullness of the life of the Kingdom which still lies ahead for the rest, and for some of them is also in question.

The fate of these others is decided after the final battle ends (vv. 7-10), at that Judgment of which the prophets spoke more than once (vv. 11-15). The outcome of the Judgment is that neither death nor the devil's kingdom has any place left in the world; they end up in the "lake of fire" together with those who are not written in the "book of life." The verdict seems excessively harsh, and it really would be so if we forgot that enrollment in this book was open throughout the whole history of the "millennial kingdom" and even later, right up to the day of Judgment. Everyone had a chance, and everyone made his own choice.

It is no surprise that those who refused to accept God's love found themselves face to face with His power, which was revealed to them as a purifying fire. If they could have turned and repented, the fire would have become for them the transforming breath of the Kingdom. But repentance and conversion depend not only on God, but also on the person, whose freedom God values infinitely, and the refusal to repent makes the fire that burns him the only form of communion with God available to the sinner, from which there is now no escape as there was before: for the world has become the Kingdom, having been completely delivered from everything that formerly hid the face of God from those living in it. And the "lake of fire" turns out to be a kind of reverse side of this Kingdom, the "outer darkness," into which, however, God banishes no one: everyone who ends up there is there solely as a consequence of his own choice.

Now, looking from the Throne, John sees not only earthly history, but also the history of the Church somewhat differently. It is revealed to him as a process of universal resurrection consisting of two stages. The first stage, called the "first resurrection," stretches over a certain (obviously symbolic) period of a thousand years, which, evidently, precedes the final defeat of Satan and his supporters (vv. 1-5). Apparently, this stage begins after the Savior's death on the cross, when the first righteous people were raised (Matt 27:51-53). At first glance it may seem difficult to speak of the "binding of Satan" (vv. 1-3) in relation to the age we are living through; meanwhile, if we recognize that the "first resurrection" began on the day of the Savior's death, that conclusion will be the only possible one. And yet, upon closer examination, we will have to agree with such a vision of the situation.

Indeed, none of the Christians of the early Christian era doubted that the Savior's resurrection itself became Satan's defeat, and a strategic defeat at that, after which his war against God and the forces of light can be considered lost, although the final battle still lies ahead. And the very unfolding of the Kingdom in a world permeated by evil and sin would have been impossible if the devil's freedom of action in it had not been limited, if he had not, in the apostle's words, been "bound." If the situation were otherwise, none of us, quite possibly, would have any choice between the Kingdom and life according to the laws of the untransformed world: the forces of darkness, if only they had been allowed, would gladly have deprived us of every choice, cutting fallen humanity off from any spiritual influence from the forces of light. In short, if Satan had not been "bound," our world would long ago have turned into hell, which differs from it above all in this: unlike our transforming but not yet fully transformed world, the breath of the Kingdom does not reach hell at all.

But the forces of darkness, of course, throughout the entire history of the "millennial kingdom," do not stop trying to turn our world into hell, striving to minimize the manifestations of the Kingdom in it as much as they are able. Paul, who spoke of the "mystery of lawlessness," understood perfectly what is happening in the world after the coming of Christ (2 Thess 2:7), just as John did, who sees the witnesses killed for their testimony by none other than the "beast," who, it would seem, should appear on earth only at the end of time. In reality, however, he is evidently opposing God throughout the whole time of the "millennial kingdom." It is no surprise that the apostle calls "blessed" all who have a share in the "first resurrection" (v. 6): for they have already gained that fullness of the life of the Kingdom which still lies ahead for the rest, and for some of them is also in question.

The fate of these others is decided after the final battle ends (vv. 7-10), at that Judgment of which the prophets spoke more than once (vv. 11-15). The outcome of the Judgment is that neither death nor the devil's kingdom has any place left in the world; they end up in the "lake of fire" together with those who are not written in the "book of life." The verdict seems excessively harsh, and it really would be so if we forgot that enrollment in this book was open throughout the whole history of the "millennial kingdom" and even later, right up to the day of Judgment. Everyone had a chance, and everyone made his own choice.

It is no surprise that those who refused to accept God's love found themselves face to face with His power, which was revealed to them as a purifying fire. If they could have turned and repented, the fire would have become for them the transforming breath of the Kingdom. But repentance and conversion depend not only on God, but also on the person, whose freedom God values infinitely, and the refusal to repent makes the fire that burns him the only form of communion with God available to the sinner, from which there is now no escape as there was before: for the world has become the Kingdom, having been completely delivered from everything that formerly hid the face of God from those living in it. And the "lake of fire" turns out to be a kind of reverse side of this Kingdom, the "outer darkness," into which, however, God banishes no one: everyone who ends up there is there solely as a consequence of his own choice.